EP 0,127,021 shows a spacer disk used for installing windows, interior construction, and roofing work which has a slot open at one side that extends from an open slot end to the center of the plate and that spacedly surrounds a mounting screw or the like with its slot end. The spacer disk is made of plastic and has at least one elastic holding tab that extends into the slot and is spaced for clamping freedom at a predetermined distance from the mounting screw.
A compensating plate for shimming laths is also known (German utility model 88 08 202.4) which consists of a plastic body with a front face and a back face and an opening for a mounting screw. The plastic body is circular, wedge-shaped, and formed with a slot. At least one face of the body is also provided with a profiling.
Compensating elements are further known from German G 87 01 267.7, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,094,779, 4,892,435, or French 2,181,245 that are wedge-shaped and always used in pairs in order to make possible a parallel support of the roof sheathing on the roof joists.
According to EP 0,719,953 a device is known for compensating heights in construction elements which is formed as a wedge of plastic, wood, or the like. The wedge is made of a flat piece with parallel faces with one end. The piece is formed with a wedge-shaped end and a part of the flat section is formed with throughgoing slots.
In addition German G 83 22 420.3 describes a spacer element for use in securing construction elements such as lath supports, wall panels, furniture, or the like to support elements such as the room surfaces of a structure. It is formed of a small plate mounted between a support element and supported part and that is provided with a formation for the connection element. The known spacer element has on its upper surface connection elements such as mounting barbs or projections, for example bumps, points, and complementary recesses. These points or the projections on the support surfaces do indeed facilitate stacking of the spacer elements with considerable slip resistance between adjacent elements, but lead during driving in between laths and support beams or by subsequent positioning to their destruction or damaging. This spacer element is thus fully unsuitable for shimming of large height differences as appear between roof boards and roof beams.
All these solutions further share the disadvantage that the height-compensating elements break apart when being driven into the space to be filled, for instance between sheathing and roof beams, and in particular when the height-compensating elements are subsequently set they can slip as a result of loosening of the nails securing the roof boards to the beams. In addition there is the disadvantage that the known compensating elements are not combinable in different heights in order to compensate for different height differences. This leads again to considerable time and material expense, for example during roofing work.